Joseph Moody (b. January 9, 1981) is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing District 78. He was first elected to the chamber in 2009. Moody was also a Prosecutor with the District Attorney's Office. He has worked on campaigns for Al Gore for President, Bill Richardson for Governor, Charles Stenholm for United States Congress, and William E. "Bill" Moody for Texas Supreme Court. Moody is a founding member of the Migrant Worker Project.[1]

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Moody served on the following committees:

2009-2010

Sponsored legislation

HB 2086 - Relating to the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and punishment for certain gang-related and other criminal offenses, including engaging in organized criminal activity, and to the consequences and costs of engaging in certain activities of a criminal street gang or certain other criminal activity; providing penalties.

HB 2187 - Relating to the prosecution and punishment of offenses involving coercing, inducing, or soliciting membership in a criminal street gang.

HB 4164 - Relating to the conduct constituting the offense of graffiti, the creation and criminal prosecution of, and penalties for offenses involving graffiti, and the authority of certain governmental entities to take certain actions designed to prevent or eradicate graffiti.[2]

Elections

2014

Elections for all 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election took place on March 4, 2014. Those candidates who did not receive 50% or more of the vote in their party primary on March 4 faced an additional May 27 primary runoff. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature-filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in these elections was December 9, 2013. Incumbent Joseph Moody was unopposed in the Democratic primary and was unchallenged in the general election.[3][4][5]

2010

Moody ran for re-election in District 78 and lost. He was unopposed in the March 2 Democratic primary and was defeated by Republican Dee Margo in the November 2 general election.[6]

Texas House of Representatives, District 78 2010 General election results

Candidates

Votes

Percent

Dee Margo (R)

15,337

52.40%

Joseph Moody (D)

13,927

47.59%

2008

On November 4, 2008, Moody won election to the Texas House of Representatives from Texas's 78th District, defeating Dee Margo (R) and Bill Collins (L). Moody received 26,176 votes in the election while Margo received 22,918 votes, and Collins received 1,706 votes.[6] Moody raised $708,548 for his campaign; Margo raised $1,073,457.[7]

Texas House of Representatives, District 78

Candidates

Votes

Percent

Joseph Moody (D)

26,176

51.52%

Dee Margo (R)

22,918

45.11%

Bill Collins (L)

1,706

3.35%

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Moody is available dating back to 2012. Based on available campaign finance records, Moody raised a total of $482,118 during that time period. This information was last updated on August 14, 2013.[8]

Scorecards

Legislative scorecards are used to evaluate elected public officials based on voting record. Some scorecards are created by political advocacy groups with a focus on specific issues, while others are developed by newspapers and are broad in scope. Scorecards are meant to be used as a tool for voters to have a quick picture of whether their views align with a particular legislator's record.

Because scorecards can be specific to particular issues or general to a state’s legislative term, for example, each report should be considered on its own merits. Each entity that publishes these reports uses different methodologies and definitions for the terms used.

Please see our writing guidelines if you would like to add results from an individual scorecard to this legislator's profile.

2013

In 2013, the Texas State Legislature was in its 83rd legislative session from January 8 through May 27. Thirty minutes after the regular session ended, Governor Rick Perry called legislators back for a special session starting that evening.[11] Two additional called sessions were held from July 1 through July 30 and July 30 through August 5.[12]

Mark P. Jones is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University. He builds a ranking of Texas state representatives each year based on their votes from the previous session. Jones then ranks legislators based on how liberal and conservative they are according to legislative history.

Empower Texans Fiscal Responsibility Index

Empower Texans produces the Fiscal Responsibility Index as "a measurement of how lawmakers perform on size and role of government issues." The index uses "exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues that demonstrate legislators' governing philosophy." Legislators were graded along a 0 through 100 scale in 2013 and on an A through F grading scale in 2011.

2013

Moody received a score of 21.1 in the 2013 Fiscal Responsibility Index.